1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cameras and particularly to a camera capable of automatically winding up a film contained in a film patrone or a film cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional camera, a patrone chamber or a cartridge chamber has only a function of containing a film patrone. In loading a film in a camera, a back cover is at first opened for example, and the film patrone is put in the patrone chamber. Then, the user holds by hand the film outside the film patrone and sets the film in a course from the patrone chamber to a film spool via a film exposure portion. After that, the film is advanced by manual operation of a winding lever by the user, or by operation of an automatic film winding device after closing of the back cover and so on.
According to the above described prior art, when a film is to be loaded in the camera, handling of the film is troublesome, since the user has to set the film in a prescribed position or inserts the film into an opening of the film spool. This problem exists not only in a camera in which a film is manually wound, but also in a camera provided with an automatic film winding device.
In order to solve such problem of the prior art, the assignee company of the present invention proposed in Japanese Patent Laying Open No. 62-156641 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,437) a camera capable of automatically winding up a film contained in a film patrone and having a compact patrone chamber.
Even the above mentioned camera proposed by the assignee company of the present invention has an insufficient function from a viewpoint of automatic loading. In such a camera, a film lead is automatically fed over the film exposure opening to the spool chamber, and on that occasion, it happens that the film lead falls in the exposure opening or catches on an end wall of the opening. If the film feeding operation continues in that condition, the film might be damaged or trouble in the film feeding device might occur.